"When I talk to people who are unregistered, they always have a bag full of excuses about why they can't register," said Mendez. "Do we also have a cultural problem here as well?"

Right now, for every registered Latino voter there is one who is eligible but unregistered. In fact, there are so many unregistered Latino adults that were they to join the political process they could alter the nation's political landscape in significant ways, according to new data released by the Center for American progress late last week. The center is a Washington, D.C. based think tank.